wintershogun.comQuiet software. Loud craft.
WinterShogun Tech builds private, offline-first apps — starting with Lyncost — and writes about the tech, Japan, and games we actually pay attention to.
Live product
Lyncost — private finance tracking, offline-first
Our flagship app. No account required, no cloud dependency — your budget stays on your machine.
From the blog
View all →Company
A year of shipping Lyncost alone
Notes from twelve months of building, supporting, and slowly growing a private finance app as a one-person company — what worked, what didn't, what I'd tell myself a year ago.
2026-09-29 · 6 min read
Product
Why Lyncost is a single SQLite file, not a hosted database
No server to provision, no monthly bill for your own budget data. The unglamorous engineering choice behind a private finance tracker.
2026-09-24 · 5 min read
Product
Why offline-first still matters in 2026
Cloud sync is convenient until the service shuts down. Here's why we keep building Lyn apps that work without asking permission from a server.
2026-09-18 · 4 min read
News, briefly
Full news hub →Tech
More →You Are No Longer Invited to Dinner
Hacker News
Delhi Cut Electricity Loss from 50 to 5 Percent
Hacker News
AI companies leak data to advertisers [pdf]
Hacker News
Japan
More →Bank of Japan holds rates, signals gradual policy normalisation
NHK World
Shinkansen network to trial autonomous night-freight runs
NHK World
Kyoto extends tourist tax to fund heritage-site conservation
The Japan Times
Gaming
More →Capcom details next RE engine update focused on ray-traced foliage
GamesIndustry.biz
Steam Deck successor rumours point to a 2027 launch window
GamesIndustry.biz
Indie darling 'Paper Lanterns' crosses one million copies sold
GamesIndustry.biz
New
Web novels, chapter by chapter
Original serialised fiction in the WinterShogun voice — historical drama, quiet sci-fi, one finished story to start with.
Japanese culture
View all →Ma (間): the art of the pause
How negative space structures Japanese gardens, music, and conversation.
Wabi-sabi in software design
Finding beauty in the imperfect, the impermanent, and the unfinished.
A year of seasons: kisetsu in daily life
How the 72 micro-seasons still shape food, festivals, and design in Japan.
A quiet guide to onsen etiquette
What to know before your first hot-spring bath, without the tourist-trap anxiety.
Kintsugi: the repair is the point
Why a pottery-mending tradition changed how we write our own changelog.
The craft of omotenashi
Hospitality that anticipates a need before it's spoken — and what it means for support.
Shokunin: the craftsman's mindset
A lifelong commitment to one craft, refined in small increments — a slower model than most software careers reward.
From the shop
Visit shop →A weekly digest, if you want it
One email, once a week: what we published, what we read, nothing else.